Why do atheists ask for evidence for God?

Atheists ask for evidence for the existence of God yet at the sametime admit that gathering evidence is impossible....so wtf?

 

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Why should we believe in anything with no evidence?

 

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I think they have doubts about their own atheism and sometimes desire a God. My best guess, anyway.

 

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It's because religion deliberately defines God out of the realms that science can test. WTF?

 

What do you mean? You're acting as if science has arrived at the absolute truth, gathered all the evidence there is, and knows all there is to know. But it hasn't, has it? Therefore there's good reason to believe in things that there's currently no evidence for.....

Take for instance if someone like you existed in ancient times you wouldn't believe in the existence of electromagnetism, black holes, or many other modern scientific concepts because at the time there was absolutely no empirical evidence for them. Using your fatally flawed logic that would mean in ancient times those things never existed.....but it didn't...all it meant is that at the time there was no evidence for them...thats all...

 

Untestability != false.....its like me saying currently you can't test if the Copenhagen interpretation or the many-worlds interpretation is true so both of them must be false....WTF?

 

Because religion has been around longer than science? :shrug:

 

Which is why a sophisticated atheist never says it's false. We only say it's so unlikely to be true, and so likely to be merely a human invention, that it's silly to believe it.

 

I don't feel there is an argument here. It is one of those things that belongs to personal experience. An atheist just hasn't had any personal experience with the subject. I don't think it is worth a battle of wills.

 

By what measure do atheists determine that God's existence is very unlikely to be true if its untestable?

 

Quite so, Bowser. I cannot deny your personal experience, nor can I use it as a point of evidence in your favor.

VitalOne,
-the existence of various contrary legends among many cultures
-the scientific proof of the evolution of species
-the anthropocentric nature of it (that man is the center of God's interest)
-the nature of people to believe various supernatural interpretations of events when the scientific method is absent (lucky charms, rituals, rain dances)
-the billions of years when there were no people
-the contradictions within holy books
-the nature of holy books to reflect only the information that the culture could have known at the time
-bad things happen to good people
-prayer doesn't work

 

If it is a personal experience, how can it be offered as evidence otherwise?

 

If your only evidence is a personal anecdote, you can understand if we entertain alternative explanations, such as you were in an altered emotional state, suffering from mental illness, mass psychosis, or optical illusion...

 

Where did I say that because I didn't believe in it, that made it suddenly not exist?

 

There are also many striking similarities....also differences do not falsify the existence of God....

Evolution does not contradict the existence of God...

....so what?

There were also many atheists when the scientific method was absent (in ancient India).....

There were also many correct, true facts gathered when there was no scientific method present (astronomy for instance)

What does this have to do with anything?

Contradictions do not falsify the existence of God...there's contradictions in modern physics...I guess its all false?

Really so why do Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Lao Tzu, all existing at different times in different cultures say innumerable things that are almost identical?

Which religion says that bad things cannot happen to people that appear good?

Prayer works, I mean manifestation works, I use it all the time....

 

But if life had just poofed into existence fully formed, then that would make god a reasonable theory. As it happens, evolution makes god defunct as a theory.

It shows that we are incidental to the grand scheme of things... an afterthought, a fluke... Not just in evolution forming human beings, but the Earth's conditions and placement... Everywhere you look you can see that nothing revolves around us, and the religious school of thought is that everything is here for US. Very, very selfish and wishful.

The great copout. The only thing that separates the theist and the atheist is that the theist (and stupid people in general) will take a daily event that goes in their favour, and think that some god or angel did it that way. This goes back to what I was saying about being selfish. As much as you would like to have us believe, it's far from the 'experience' you paint. Atheists have the same experiences as theists from an emotional standpoint, but it doesn't always require a sky-daddy.

 

Why do we even need a god? To explain the as yet inexplicable? To scare us into being good, lest we go to hell? Why not take the ultimate "leap of faith" and just walk away from gods entirely? If we're wrong, the god will forgive us and take us back (and we'll surely deserve whatever punishment is meted out, although an 'all-loving' and 'all-forgiving' god shouldn't have any punishment in store). If we're right, then we've rid ourselves of detrimental superstition and can advance our knowledge free of the shackles of ancient mysticism.

 

You didn't ask me to prove it false, only to list some reasons why it's unlikely.

 

I'd think it'd be more intellectually honest for atheists to say "no compelling reason" rather than "no evidence" since providing evidence is impossible.

 

Not all of reality is based on evidence. A perfect circle or any other geometric shape, for example, can not be observed.

So is geometry real or imaginary?